K-ZONE WPKZ FM105.3/AM 1280

Your Hometown Radio

listen nowLISTEN NOW
listen nowLISTEN NOW
K-Zone Studio Line 978.348.1280

History

Armenian Genocide Remembrance planned for Sunday in Leominster

by

LEOMINSTER — Celebrating and treasuring arts and culture has been an essential tradition for the Armenian people through centuries of war, right through the 1915 Armenian genocide and the current and ongoing blockade of Artsakh by Azerbaijani forces.

Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day will be commemorated at Leominster Public Library on Sunday from 2-3 p.m., in advance of the official Remembrance Day on Tuesday. Members of the public are invited to attend an event in which the history of Armenia is discussed; from prehistory through the present-day. Customs including family life, culinary arts, and folklore are discussed.

The event will be hosted by Sally Cragin and George Mirijanian, with “Fitchburg Gyumri Arts Connection” on Facebook and Swan Hope Press.

‘To Be or Not To Be’, visit the Leominster Public Library for “Shake-Scene!”

by

LEOMINSTER — Featuring scenes and monologues from some of Shakespeare’s best-known plays, including Macbeth, Taming of the Shrew, Henry V, and Julius Caesar, an original compilation – performed by Shakespearian performers Stephen Collins and Poornima Kirby – will dig into universal themes such as the price of power, the risks of falling in love, and the ageless question of what to do with a murder weapon.

This performance, which will kick off National Poetry Month, will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 2, in the Leominster Public library’s Community Room, located at 30 West St.

The one-hour show is free of charge and no registration is required.

“The staff here at the Leominster Public Library is pleased to welcome Stephen Collins and Poornima Kirby for a rollicking ride through some of the Bard’s finest poetry and most compelling characters,” said Diane Sanabria, local history, and genealogy librarian, at the Leominster Public Library.

“Shake-Scene!” will feature a lively and playful banter, fascinating historical context, and includes a Q&A session at the end of the program.

“Come immerse yourself in Shakespeare’s wit, wordplay, and timeless verse,” Sanabria said.

Stephen Collins grew up in Cambridge and received a BA in Literature from

UMass Boston. After twenty plus years in a sales career, he returned to what he truly loves, performing and teaching,” he said.

From his signature performance of “Unlaunch’d Voices, an Evening with Walt Whitman”, to his newest addition “Songs of My Father”, about the life of Herman Melville, “this true Renaissance man has been met with rave reviews for over a decade,” said Sanabria.

“His performances deliver not just the poetry and plays, but also bring the authors and artists to life on the stage,” she said. “Collins strives to convey an understanding of the impact and the reactions of the characters to their respective times, giving the audience not just a performance, but an experience.”

Collins also works as a professionally licensed tour guide doing narrated historical tours of Boston.

“F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote, ‘There are no second acts in American lives’,” said Collins. “Of course, I think that’s wrong. I’m the classic example of a late bloomer.”

Poornima Kirby is a Boston-based actress, teacher, writer, and director.

“She has a special affinity for poetic texts and collaborative theatre making,” Sanabria said.

Kirby holds a B.A. in Drama from Vassar College and has trained at LAMDA and Shakespeare & Company.

She writes, directs, and performs regularly with Theatre of Eternal Values, a meditation-based theater company with bases in Cabella, Italy, and Quincy. She has also appeared in numerous commercials, industrials, and several independent films.

For more information on this performance, or other library events, call 978-534-7522 or visit leominsterlibrary.org.

Photo: Recognizing Vietnam Veterans

by

PEPPERELL — March 29 is National Vietnam War Veterans Day.

National Vietnam War Veterans Day is observed every year on March 29 and is a way to thank and honor our nation’s Vietnam veterans and their families for their service and sacrifice. Events to honor the veterans are being planned across the U.S.

Commemorative events like wreath-laying ceremonies, speeches, and luncheons are held to mark the occasion. Typical venues include the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, war veteran medical facilities, and military cemeteries.

Vietnam War Veterans Day was first observed as a one-time occasion on March 29, 2012, when President Barack Obama issued a proclamation calling on “all Americans to observe this day with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities.”

The day was then introduced as an annual event in 2017 when President Donald Trump signed the Vietnam War Veterans Recognition Act of 2017.

Famous encounters in the tri-town area

by

Have you brushed elbows with someone famous? If you live in the Greater Tri-Town area, chances are that you have indeed. Fitchburg and Leominster have seen plenty of celebrities — most recently Ben Affleck and George Clooney who filmed scenes from The Tender Bar in Fitchburg’s Ward 6 a few years ago.

But most famous folks who visit here have come from the political sphere. Fitchburg was a frequent stop for candidates on the campaign trail, and on Sept. 2, 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt took the train to New England. He was stumping for Republican candidates, and, since Massachusetts’ Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge’s seat was considered safe, focused his speech on his disapproval of antiTrust conversation:

“Those men who advocate wild and foolish remedies which would be worse than the disease are doing all in their power to perpetuate the evils against which they nominally war, because, if we are brought face to face with the naked issue of either keeping or totally destroying a prosperity in which the majority share, but in which some share improperly, why, as sensible men, we must decide that it is a great deal better that some people should prosper too much than that no one should prosper enough,” he declared.

Fitchburg was the first stop on that day’s activities (he’d spent the previous week in New Hampshire and Vermont), and he finished up the afternoon in Springfield and Westfield. Since the Rough Rider visited, we haven’t had another sitting president — but plenty of future presidents.

The lore in my family is that when Richard and Pat Nixon took the train to Fitchburg to campaign for Eisenhower, my mother, then a Fitchburg High School student had personally handed a bunch of yellow roses to Pat. (Note: my mother Janet, in her lifetime, neither confirmed nor denied this story; however in her jewelry box was a gold “Ike” pendant and matching earrings.)

More recently, Ken Jones of Fitchburg, organized a rally for Sen. Howard Baker, Republican Presidential candidate at the British American Club in 1980. He remembers “it was a pretty packed house. He didn’t stay in Fitchburg, it was pretty much a whirlwind tour.”

Jones vividly recalls members of the Secret Service “wearing brand new jeans and flannel shirts with high and tight haircuts, playing paper makers. The advance guys had me give a full tour of the British American Club, Log Cabin and the little restaurant. I just barely met the Senator. He was a nice enough guy.”

Music to your ears

Richard F. Boursy, music librarian at the Irving S. Gilmore Music Library at Yale notes his department has “just finished surveying the papers of Ralph Kirkpatrick (1911-1984), who was the world’s most eminent harpsichordist in the middle part of the 20th century.”

Kirkpatrick grew up in North Leominster, at 856 Main St., and attended Harvard, later becoming a professor at the Yale School of Music. Among his papers are hundreds of programs for concerts, including one from the concert Sergei Rachmaninoff performed in Leominster on Nov. 23, 1923.

Rachmaninoff began the concert with Bach’s English Suite No. 2, moved on to works by Mendelssohn, Chopin and Liszt, before playing two of his own works (The Etude Tableau in B Minor and G Minor; and “Hopak” co-written with Mussorgsky) on a Steinway piano. If any historians are reading this, and are curious about “researching the concert life of Fitchburg and Leominster in the 1920s, the Kirkpatrick Papers would be a great source,” adds Boursy.

In more recent years, numerous clubs and bars regularly booked live music. Jones remembers meeting Karen Carpenter at a local show in 1974, and getting a cassette signed by Don MacLean, (“American Pie) at a concert at Coolidge Park.

Athletes aplenty

But it’s not just musicians who made north central Mass. a stop on the road. Historian Eunice Halbedel grew up in Fitchburg, and remembers when the Bruins practiced at the Wallace Civic Center.

“They used to come in to Fitchburg Ford, where I worked, to rent cars,” she recalls. “One day a friend and I went to Peter Pan [restaurant] after work and the team was there. Bobby recognized me and invited us over to share some of their appetizers. I didn’t talk much but enjoyed listening to their banter.”

Martha Wells Quirk remembers seeing Derek Sanderson, Gerry Cheevers, Pie Mackenzie and other Boston Bruins one day. “They were in street clothes leaving the Civic Center. I remember thinking, how lucky am I to be able to experience this!” Quirk also recalls a story that the players “trashed the Thunderbird Motel,” but no police records have surfaced.

Sally Cragin serves as councilor-at-large in Fitchburg and is an award-winning journalist. Did you meet someone famous out this way? Email sallycragin@gmail.com — we’d love to see your story!

Celebrating National History Month by honoring Caroline Atherton Mason

by

FITCHBURG — April is National History Month, and the Fitchburg Historical Society is proud to announce an exciting new discovery — a new poem by Fitchburg’s acclaimed 19th century poet, Caroline Atherton Mason (1823-1890).

“The new poem, ‘Return of the Regiment’ was an ‘occasional’ piece written in honor of the soldiers from the 53rd Regiment who returned to Fitchburg after the Battle of Fredericksburg, in 1863,” said Susan Navarre, executive director of the Fitchburg Historical Society.

“Return of the Regiment” will be the showpiece of an event titled “Tribute to Caroline Atherton Mason, Poet Laureate of Fitchburg and other Verse Writers,” to be held from 5:30 until 8:30 p.m. Thursday, April 6, at the Mill Street Stage, located on Boulder Drive.

“Caroline is best known for a poem she wrote as a homesick schoolgirl, ‘Do They Miss Me Tonight,’ which became a ballad sung during the Civil War by both sides,” said Navarre. “She published widely during her lifetime, and other poems were transformed into songs that can be found in hymnals of many denominations.”

Navarre explains that what is exciting about ‘Return of the Regiment,’ was that it was written for a specific and individual group of men.

“Because they were from Fitchburg, some of them would likely have been known to her and her family,” Navarre said. “In the poem, she contrasts the quality of the brackish water they would have drunk in the South to the clean and pure mountain water available in Fitchburg.”

Writer Sally Cragin came across the poem in a collection of items connected to other Civil War correspondence.

“I recognized the handwriting immediately,” Cragin said. “I know that some of her poems were published in the ‘Fitchburg Sentinel’, but I’d never heard of this one; nor knew she had ever written on the topic of the Civil War.”

The “Tribute to Caroline Atherton Mason” is sponsored by the Fitchburg Historical Society, InTown Fitchburg, Bonfire Book Shop, and the Stratton Players.

The Mill Street Stage is administered by the City of Fitchburg.

For more information, contact Fitchburg Historical Society at 978-345-1157 or visit fitchburghistoricalsociety.com.

The Fitchburg Historical Society is a 501(c)3 nonprofit, supported in part by grants from the Mass Cultural Council and MassHumanities.

An eyesore no more: Iver Mills ready for housing transformation

by

FITCHBURG — For nearly a century, the Iver Johnson Arms and Cycle Works called the city home. But, since the company’s departure in 1971, the multifaceted manufacturer’s industrial River Street property has sat fallow.

Luckily, through the work of Rich Darche and Aldo Mazzaferro, the property is set to be reborn.

Partners at Iver Mills Residences, Darche and Mazzaferro are set to transform the former manufacturing space into 80,000 square feet of high-quality housing, including 44 one-bedroom, 15 two-bedroom and six studio apartments with “all the modern amenities” one could want. Further, they plan to do so within the “good bones” of the property that largely remain, a fusion of “old and new” that the two hope will entice residents and have a lasting impact on the city.

Darche described the chance to bring the property “back to life” as a “can’t miss” opportunity and said he and Mazzaferro were excited to take part in the city’s “revitalization.” Mazzaferro, a Leominster native, said he relished the opportunity to give back to the community.

“To bring back such an old facility, a place that has such fantastic architecture and brickwork, to the city of Fitchburg was an awesome opportunity,” Darche said. “[Fitchburg] is a place that has undergone a major, positive transition in the last few years, and we wanted to be a part of that.”

“The property was an eyesore, just sort of ugly and falling apart,” Mazzaferro said. “We saw an opportunity to do these historic structures a bit of justice and make a huge difference in the community as far as housing opportunities.”

Norwegian-born firearms manufacturer Iver Johnson founded his company in Worcester back in 1871. 20 years later, Johnson moved the business to Fitchburg, into the space formerly occupied by the Walter D. Heywood Chair Manufacturing Company of later Gardner fame, in order to expand operations.

And expand they did: beyond firearms, the company’s scope encompassed bicycles, motorcycles and even sporting goods. Both Darche and Mazzaferro said the historical component piqued their initial interest in the property.

“We saw a chance to keep a piece of that history alive, that’s what drew us in,” Darche said. “Just a great opportunity to make that space useful again and bring back some of that old ‘grandeur’ to the city.”

“It would have been a crime to tear down a place like this, so we jumped in before that could happen,” Mazzaferro said.

Unfortunately for the duo, the purchase came with some unexpected warts. Environmental concerns were “far beyond” what they expected. Coupled with a pandemic that “sent them back to the drawing board” and, as a result, significantly increased costs, it took years to truly get the project started after they purchased it in May of 2018.

“We didn’t know at the time (of purchase) what the extent of environmental cleanup was going to be,” Darche said. “It was a lot more involved than we had expected — and then, of course, you have a whole pandemic which threw a monkey wrench into everything.”

That said, the duo persisted. “Aldo and I have been in the business world a long time,” Darche said, “and we weren’t going to let a few surprises here and there stop us from working on what we believe is going to be an awesome project.”

“We’re persistent, we got through it and now we’re sort of on the precipice,” he said.

Now, the project has gained serious traction. While there is plenty of work to be done, the duo expect construction and restoration work to start soon and, barring further “monkey wrenches,” the property should be ready to occupy late in 2024.

“That’s sort of where we’re at right now and we’re very excited,” Darche said.

As an update on the project, Darche and Mazzaferro led multiple city and state leaders, including Mayor Stephen DiNatale and state Sen. John Cronin, on a site tour on Monday, March 6. For them, the theme was the impending transformation of the long dilapidated structures and, in a larger sense, a revitilization of the city.

DiNatale, who said he has a “deep and abiding respect” for history, said he was glad to see the derelict space given the proper attention after years of abandonment and touched on the housing project’s potential to lead to further, commercial development in the area. Cronin, meanwhile, said he was excited to see the Darche-Mazzaferro project “come together” with other recent investments to turn the city into a “destination.”

“There’s no city with a greater historical pedigree than Fitchburg,” DiNatale said. “Anytime we have the opportunity to preserve some of that history, we’re going to do what we can and we’re glad to see that being done here.”

“You put shoes on the ground and development, retail, commercial, whatever, is going follow. That’s what we want to see through this project, we believe it could really be a catalyst.”

“There’s a real unity of conception between the investments being made in downtown Fitchburg,” Cronin said. “And that’s exactly what we need — whether it’s housing, arts-and-culture, restaurants, bars, transportation, they have to come together to get the city where we want it to be and where it should be as a destination — and we’re seeing that here.”

DiNatale also thanked Darche and Mazzaferro for their contribution to a housing crisis that has continued to grip the city, state and country at large.

“We’ve made significant inroads in addressing the sort of housing deficit we’ve faced here in the city,” DiNatale said. “We’re doing what we can, chipping away and making every effort to address that effort and we can’t thank Rich and Aldo enough for adding their efforts to that through this project.

In turn, Darche and Mazzaferro thanked the city and those at the State House that have aided the project for their patience and cooperation. Darche said “we couldn’t say enough” about how supportive DiNatale and the city has been throughout the prolonged process, while Mazzaferro said he was “excited” to give back to the city to repay that support.

“That’s a huge motivation for us,” Mazzaferro said. “I’d like nothing better than to give the city something to be proud of here — I truly think we will and I can’t wait to see it once it’s complete.”